Editor\u2019s note: This story was updated at 11:21 a.m. on Feb. 24 with new information on the Conservative Agenda For America.<\/p>\n
An Ohio-based nonprofit is pouring money into political advertisements influencing often inconspicuous Tarrant County and statewide GOP precinct chair races. But the sources \u2014 and purposes \u2014 of the funds for such efforts are blurry.<\/p>\n
The Conservative Agenda For America<\/a>, a political nonprofit not registered with the Federal Ethics Commission, has funneled a reported $625,000 through three newly formed Texas political action committees, sending political flyers and texts in support of at least eight candidates in Tarrant County who are challenging incumbent precinct chairs.<\/p>\n Twelve candidates across those precincts said, either in interviews or on social media, that they had no connections with the PACs and did not know what prompted the unusual attention to their races.<\/p>\n The only financial activity self-reported by the Conservative Agenda For America was in 2024, when it donated about $4.2 million to two other Republican PACs and Make America Great Again Inc., according to OpenSecrets.org<\/a>, a website that tracks federal PAC spending.<\/p>\n David Langdon \u2014 an Ohio lawyer famous for funneling political money through conservative, often Christian, nonprofit organizations<\/a> \u2014 founded the nonprofit in 2023 as Protect Women Ohio<\/a>. That anti-abortion organization fought against Ohio\u2019s approved ballot measure that enshrined the right to abortion and other contraception measures in the state\u2019s constitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n In August 2024, Langdon changed the nonprofit\u2019s name to the Conservative Agenda For America, according to Ohio business records. Because the organization is a nonprofit, it does not need to publicly disclose its donors.<\/p>\n Of Tarrant County\u2019s 708 precinct chair positions, 13 GOP seats are contested in the March 3 Republican primaries. Hundreds of Tarrant County precinct seats, which volunteers fill within the party to mobilize voters, are vacant as of Feb. 20, according to the Tarrant County GOP\u2019s website.<\/p>\n The precinct chair races have seen endorsements from prominent Tarrant County Republicans, campaign signs along roadways, texting campaigns and flyers \u2014 things that are typically unheard of in such races, according to Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.<\/p>\n Precinct chairs appear on the primary ballot only when there are more than two candidates and are followed only by the party\u2019s resolutions.<\/p>\n To see any number of precinct chairs contested is out of the ordinary, Wilson said. He continued to say that seeing outside PACs investing cash into the elections of specific precinct chair candidates is \u201cpretty remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing more and more is ideologically motivated interest groups getting involved at lower and lower \u2014 and more localized \u2014 levels of politics in the kinds of races that in the past have not been ideologically charged or hotly contested,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n Precinct chairs are unpaid positions charged with motivating their neighborhoods to vote for their respective party through door-knocking and phone-banking.<\/p>\n Chairs also have a voice at the Tarrant County Republican Party\u2019s executive committee<\/a> meetings, which happen about every other month. At these meetings, precinct chairs and party leadership discuss any ongoing campaigns and vote on various resolutions \u2014 statements or drafted legislation that are then sent to the state Republican Party.<\/p>\n Additionally, precinct chairs elect the party chair every two years and have the power to vote them out.<\/p>\n The committee\u2019s name is similar to the Conservative Action For America PAC, a federally registered committee primarily funded by West Texas oil tycoon Tim Dunn<\/a>. That committee reported receiving $1 million from Dunn in 2022, as well as about $91,000 from two other committees, and has not reported receiving any other funds since, according to the FEC.<\/p>\n Dunn is also a founder and major funder of the Texans United for a Conservative Majority PAC, a committee<\/a> that streamed hundreds of thousands into Leigh Wambsganss\u2019 campaign for Texas Senate District 9<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of Tarrant County\u2019s 708 precinct chair positions, 13 GOP seats are contested in the March 3 Republican primaries. Hundreds of Tarrant County precinct seats, which volunteers fill within the party to mobilize voters, are vacant as of Feb. 20, according to the Tarrant County GOP\u2019s website.<\/p>\n The precinct chair races have seen endorsements from prominent Tarrant County Republicans, campaign signs along roadways, texting campaigns and flyers \u2014 things that are typically unheard of in such races, according to Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.<\/p>\n Precinct chairs appear on the primary ballot only when there are more than two candidates and are followed only by the party\u2019s resolutions.<\/p>\n To see any number of precinct chairs contested is out of the ordinary, Wilson said. He continued to say that seeing outside PACs investing cash into the elections of specific precinct chair candidates is \u201cpretty remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing more and more is ideologically motivated interest groups getting involved at lower and lower \u2014 and more localized \u2014 levels of politics in the kinds of races that in the past have not been ideologically charged or hotly contested,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n Precinct chairs are unpaid positions charged with motivating their neighborhoods to vote for their respective party through door-knocking and phone-banking.<\/p>\n Chairs also have a voice at the Tarrant County Republican Party\u2019s executive committee<\/a> meetings, which happen about every other month. At these meetings, precinct chairs and party leadership discuss any ongoing campaigns and vote on various resolutions \u2014 statements or drafted legislation that are then sent to the state Republican Party.<\/p>\n Additionally, precinct chairs elect the party chair every two years and have the power to vote them out.<\/p>\n Formerly low-profile local elections \u2014 from school board to City Council<\/a> \u2014 have seen an uptick in PAC involvement over the past decade, Wilson said. What\u2019s happening in the Tarrant County GOP, he said, signals that even intraparty contests are being influenced by national political polarization.<\/p>\n Ten of the 13 contested precincts are located on the west side of Keller ISD, which last year drew headlines as school board members considered a controversial proposal to split the district in two<\/a>.<\/p>\n The three Texas PACs funded by Conservative Agenda For America have released advertisements primarily expressing support for candidates who have been vocally critical of the proposed split, labeling them as \u201cproven conservative leaders\u201d and \u201cMAGA patriots.\u201d<\/p>\n Ten of the 13 contested precincts are located on the west side of Keller ISD, which last year drew headlines as school board members considered a controversial proposal to split the district in two<\/a>.<\/p>\n The three Texas PACs funded by Conservative Agenda For America have released advertisements primarily expressing support for candidates who have been vocally critical of the proposed split, labeling them as \u201cproven conservative leaders\u201d and \u201cMAGA patriots.\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the candidates have publicly criticized Republicans who were associated with the split, including Leigh Wambsganss, the self-described \u201cultra-MAGA\u201d candidate who on Jan. 31 lost her bid to represent a large section of Tarrant County<\/a> in the Texas Senate, and Tim Davis, who was recently elected<\/a> as chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party and represented Keller ISD<\/a> during the attempt to split the district.<\/p>\n State PACs fail to detail spending in finance reports\u00a0<\/p>\n All three PACs \u2014 the Texas Results First PAC, the Texas Leadership Alliance and the Texas Reform Accountability Project \u2014 started Feb. 5 and 6, according to the Texas Secretary of State.<\/p>\n On Monday, the PACs filed their first finance reports to the Texas Ethics Commission. The reports are supposed to detail where their dollars are coming from and going.<\/p>\n However, the information yielded by the reports is sparse.<\/p>\n While the PACs reported the federal source of their funds, they did not report how much money they had spent on individual races. They also did not disclose all the names of the candidates they have supported.<\/p>\n For instance, the Texas Reform Accountability Project has sent out texts in support of Colin Hodges, who is running against incumbent chair Kenya Alu in and around the Fort Worth subdivision of Steadman Farms<\/a>. However, the PAC does not report its support of Hodges in finance reports.<\/p>\n The PACs each report supporting five different candidates across Tarrant, Denton, Collin, Montgomery, Hamilton, Lubbock, Upshur and Ector counties.<\/p>\n The Texas Reform Accountability Project disclosed spending $196,637 on two companies specializing in political advertisements in Wyoming and Virginia. It did not specify how much was spent on each race.<\/p>\n The other PACs reported giving similar amounts to the same companies.<\/p>\n Angela Hall, one of the Tarrant County candidates listed on the PACs’ reports, said she feels the unsolicited mailers sent in her favor undermined voter trust, and that campaigns \u201cshould be honest and transparent, not manipulative and confusing.\u201d<\/p>\n Hall is running in a precinct encompassing Vista Meadows and surrounding neighborhoods off of Golden Triangle Boulevard<\/a> in north Fort Worth. In November 2024, her precinct held 3,942 voters and voted 58% for Trump.<\/p>\n The three Texas PACs\u2019 physical addresses lead to P.O. boxes across the state: The Texas Results First PAC reports a Wichita Falls shipping store<\/a>, the Texas Leadership Alliance points to an El Paso one<\/a>, and the Texas Reform Accountability Project lists a shipping store<\/a> in the Texas border city of McAllen.<\/p>\n The PACs\u2019 respective treasurers \u2014 Dustin McIntyre, Alex Melendez and Josh Shultz \u2014 could not be traced via public records. The phone numbers listed on their filing reports are invalid.<\/p>\n The Report reached out to two individuals named Alex Melendez who previously donated to Democratic Texas political campaigns. Both denied being tied to the Texas Leadership Alliance.<\/p>\n McIntyre has been listed as treasurer for at least a dozen federal and North Texas PACs, according to The Dallas Morning News<\/a>, which attempted and failed to trace the individual.<\/p>\n Davis, the GOP chair, told the Report that he did not know where the PACs were coming from, but he expects all candidates to \u201cfollow the same rules,\u201d including financial transparency. He said he felt that having contested primary races \u2014 even down to the precinct level \u2014 was \u201cin a general sense\u201d a good thing.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s part of the process. People can get together and aggregate their resources and support the candidates that they want,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThat\u2019s a good thing. We want that to occur, and we want more engagement. We just expect it to be on a level playing field.\u201d<\/p>\n Local Republicans decry PAC involvement as \u2018infiltration\u2019<\/p>\n Hodges, one of the candidates, said he didn\u2019t feel the PACs\u2019 support was affecting his campaign. Texas law, he noted, allows PACs to support candidates without their consent.<\/p>\n \u201cPrecinct chair elections are hyperlocal, and if your neighbors know who you are, those mailers just become future kindling material,\u201d Hodges said.<\/p>\n The Tarrant County precinct chair incumbents have received support from prominent Tarrant County Republican PACs. They have the backing of For Liberty and Justice<\/a>, the political arm of Mercy Culture church and True Texas Project<\/a> \u2014 PACs that are in support of Christian causes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Alu said she, as with her challenger, opposed the Keller ISD split, despite her being friends with Davis.<\/p>\n Alu, a precinct chair of eight years who has never faced a challenger, called the PACs\u2019 involvement \u201can infiltration\u201d of the Republican Party. She noted the PAC is specifically backing some candidates who would not publicly support Wambsganss in the Jan. 31 runoff.<\/p>\n Wambsganss\u2019 loss in what has historically been a ruby red part of Tarrant County drew national attention, with Democrats now hoping their win is a boon to flip more GOP Texas seats<\/a> in the November midterms.<\/p>\n \u201cA precinct chair\u2019s job is to get out the Republican vote,\u201d Alu said. \u201cIf you have a bunch of precinct chairs who, for example in a primary, are getting out the Republican vote, but they\u2019re pushing the most moderate candidates possible \u2014 most center-right or just center altogether \u2014 that could affect voters.\u201d<\/p>\n Hodges has voted in four Republican primaries since 2016. In November 2024, President Donald Trump took about 62% of his precinct of 4,605 registered voters.<\/p>\n Precincts can have two chairs \u2014 one for the Republican Party, the other for the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n Alu said that, if Democrats wanted to \u201cdestroy the party from within,\u201d they could attempt to elect moderate or center Republicans into precinct positions. Once elected, those precinct chairs could influence who the GOP chairman is and create their own resolutions.<\/p>\n At the party\u2019s January meeting, precinct chairs passed resolutions, including a letter of support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as drafted legislation that would make all state political candidates swear to uphold a \u201crepublican form\u201d of government when filing for election.<\/p>\n Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, rejected the notion that Democrats would attempt to weaken the GOP by installing precinct chairs. She said she\u2019s too busy trying to fill roughly 300 Democratic precinct chairs of her own.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t have to lift a finger to try to destroy the Republican Party from within. They do it themselves just fine,\u201d Campolo said. \u201cTheir brand is dying, and they\u2019re aware of this, and that\u2019s the reason I can think of that moderate shadow PACs are trying to prop up more moderate precinct chairs.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis, the GOP chair, said he didn\u2019t feel that disagreements within the Republican Party would weaken its stability. He said he is proud of the variety of candidates that Republicans are choosing between, from the precinct chair level up to the U.S. senator.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will go through this primary, and we will have our nominees on the other side of it, and you\u2019ll see our party unite around those nominees,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThough externally, it may seem like there is a divide or a gap that needs to be bridged, this is just the part of the primary process that we\u2019re in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Curtis Walker, a precinct chair of two years who is up against Hall, said that, within any party, there will be differences of opinion and desires, so he respects Hall\u2019s right to challenge him. Still, he\u2019s been surprised by the PACs\u2019 involvement.<\/p>\n Getting involved in GOP precinct chair races would not be a good investment for the Democratic Party, said Wilson, the political science professor. Even if Democrats won the effort, they haven\u2019t won actual elected offices.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst thing Democrats could do (as GOP precinct chairs) is do nothing \u2014 that is, not do the work that precinct chairs typically do in terms of voter mobilization, organization, phone-banking, the kinds of on-the-ground electoral efforts that local party officials engage in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Wilson said the case in Tarrant County more likely represents a factional split in the Republican Party, with two sides trying to win control of the party.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that there have been, for a while now, feuds between more ideologically charged Maga Republicans and more traditional establishment Republicans,\u201d he said. \u201cThis seems to be a manifestation of that division.\u201d<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: This story was updated at 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 23, 2026, to clarify how the three PACs reported spending their funds, and at 9:50 p.m to clarify that Leigh\u00a0Wambsganss was among Republicans associated with the Keller ISD split.<\/p>\n Drew Shaw is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s note: This story was updated at 11:21 a.m. on Feb. 24 with new information on the Conservative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-180581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}